In a disk array device, multiple disk drives are coupled to a single control module, thereby causing undesirable data transfer in transmission paths coupling the multiple disk drives to the control module.
In data transmission and reception of a storage area network system, a certain data transfer amount between a user server and each magnetic disk drive through an I/F port is specified. For example, a certain storage area network system has been proposed that obtains a data transfer amount between a user server and each of the magnetic disk drives, monitors the data transfer amount, compares the obtained data transfer amount with a specified data transfer amount of the user server, selects an I/F port based on the comparison result, and gives the corresponding server instructions to be coupled to the I/F port.
In addition, each disk array device including two or more types of disk drives is associated with a set of management rules. In the disk array devices, it has been proposed that management rules may include, for example, rules for identifying a dedicated disk array device, setting the dedicated disk array device, transmitting disk protocol messages to the dedicated disk array device, processing the disk protocol messages received in the dedicated disk array device, and processing an error condition and an exception condition.
In a disk array system, when multiple disk drives having different data transfer capacities are coupled to an identical transmission path, it is probable that imbalance in a data transfer amount with respect to each of the disk drives is caused.